Israel plans protests and major workers’ strike after more hostages die in Gaza

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s largest labor union called a general strike Monday to pressure the government for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, as Israel said it had found the bodies of six hostages, including a young Israeli-American man held by Hamas.

The Histadrut represents some 800,000 workers in areas including health care, transportation and banking, and said the strike would encompass the international airport, with all flights suspended. The aim of the strike is to persuade the Israeli government to make a deal to bring home the remaining hostages.

It would be the first general strike since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7. A general strike last year during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial judicial reform helped temporarily delay the plan.

A new wave of protests was set to begin Sunday night in Israel, fueled by raw anger and grief. Many Israelis blame Netanyahu for failing to bring them back alive as part of a deal with Hamas to end the 10-month war that has been under negotiation for months.

The military said all six hostages were killed shortly before Israeli forces arrived.

Netanyahu said Israel would hold Hamas accountable for killing hostages “in cold blood” and blamed the militant group for stalling negotiations, saying “whoever murders hostages doesn’t want an agreement.”

Militants captured 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin and four others hostage at a music festival in southern Israel during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war.

Born in Berkeley, California, he lost part of his left arm in a grenade attack. In April, Hamas released a video showing him alive but without his left arm, sparking new protests in Israel calling on the government to do more to secure the hostages’ release.

The army identified the other dead hostages as Ori Danino, 25; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Almog Sarusi, 27; and Alexander Lobanov, 33; who were also taken from the music festival. The sixth, Carmel Gat, 40, was kidnapped from the nearby farming community of Be’eri.

The bodies were reportedly fished out of a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, about a kilometer (half a mile) from where another hostage, 52-year-old Qaeda Farhan Alkadi, was rescued alive last week.

Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, a military spokesman, said the army believes there are hostages in the area but has no specific intelligence. He said Israeli forces found bodies several dozen meters (yards) underground as “fighting continued,” but there was no shooting in the tunnel itself.

He said there was no doubt that Hamas killed them.

Hamas offered to release the hostages in exchange for an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including prominent militants.

Izzat al-Rishq, a senior Hamas official, said the hostages would still be alive if Israel had accepted the U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal, which Hamas reportedly agreed to in July.

Hostage families demand ‘complete shutdown of the country’

Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed, saying military pressure is necessary to free the hostages.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported that he got into a screaming argument at a security cabinet meeting late Thursday with his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, who accused him of prioritizing control of a strategic corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border — a major sticking point in the talks — over the lives of the hostages. The cabinet reportedly voted to stay in the corridor despite Gallant’s objections, who said it would make a hostage deal impossible.

An Israeli official confirmed the reports and said three hostages — Goldberg-Polin, Yerushalmi and Gat — were to be released in the first phase of a ceasefire proposal discussed in July. The official was not authorized to brief media on the negotiations and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“On behalf of the state of Israel, I hold their families close to my heart and ask for forgiveness,” Gallant said Sunday after the remains were recovered. He later called on the cabinet to reverse its decision.

The Hostage Families Forum has called for a “complete stoppage of the country’s activities” to pressure for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages.

“The deal to return the hostages has been on the table for more than two months. If not for delays, sabotage and excuses, those whose deaths we learned of this morning would likely still be alive,” the statement read.

US President Joe Biden, who met with Goldberg-Polin’s parents, said he was “devastated and outraged”.

“This is as tragic as it is reprehensible,” he said. “Make no mistake, the Hamas leadership will pay for these crimes. And we will work around the clock to reach an agreement that secures the release of the remaining hostages.”

Vice President Kamala Harris said she was praying for the Goldberg-Polin family and condemned Hamas.

A campaign with a wide reach

Goldberg-Polin’s parents, U.S.-born immigrants to Israel, have become perhaps the most high-profile hostage relatives on the international stage, meeting with Biden, Pope Francis and others and calling on the United Nations to free all hostages.

On Aug. 21, his parents addressed a silent hall at the Democratic National Convention — to much applause and chants of “take him home.”

“This is a political convention. But the need for our only son — and all the beloved hostages — to be home is not a political issue. It’s a humanitarian issue,” said his father, Jon Polin. His mother, Rachel, who bowed her head during the applause and touched her chest, said: “Hersh, if you can hear us, we love you, be strong, survive.”

She and her husband wanted to protect their son and others from being reduced to a numerical rank, describing Hersh as a music and soccer lover and a traveler who planned to attend university after his military service ended.

Some 250 hostages were taken on October 7. Israel now believes 101 are still in captivity, including 35 who are presumed dead. More than 100 people were freed during a week-long ceasefire in November in exchange for the release of Palestinians held captive by Israel. Eight were rescued by Israeli forces.

Two previous Israeli hostage-freeing operations killed dozens of Palestinians. Hamas says several hostages were killed in Israeli airstrikes and failed rescue attempts. Israeli forces mistakenly killed three Israelis who escaped captivity in December.

Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, when they swept into southern Israel on October 7, attacking military bases and several farming communities.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who did not say how many were militants. It has displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, often multiple times, and plunged the besieged territory into a humanitarian catastrophe.